Last weekend in Hong Kong, I had a deep conversation with an old friend who has been in investment banking for over a decade. He said something that left a deep impression on me: "Many people think finance is a wealth-making machine, but in the underlying code of the system, its biggest function is — precisely identifying and eliminating ordinary people who try to complete primitive accumulation through hard work."

These words are harsh, but if you look around, you will find an absurd reality: This generation of young people has the highest level of education in history, and working hours are constantly being squeezed, yet the threshold for "the first pot of gold" is several orders of magnitude higher than that of their parents. Why? Because today's financial ecosystem has already tailored a set of "accumulation crushers" for everyone.

**The first siege: Consumerism — makes you lose your savings ability in "refinement"**

The essence of primitive accumulation is very simple: Earn 10, save 7, and that 7 is the seed for the future. But now the entire payment system is helping you "forget" the weight of money — facial recognition, fingerprints, password-free payments. Money flows out as a string of numbers, and you don't even have time to feel the pain.

More insidious is the "installment trap." When you buy the latest phone or light luxury bag with 24-month interest-free installments, you think you are rewarding yourself, but in reality, you are working for the bank's and brand's balance sheets. The financial algorithm gently tells you, "You deserve a better life," but the subtext is, "You don't deserve to have savings."

**The second siege: Inflation — "saving honestly" becomes a gentle form of suicide**

Okay, suppose you are disciplined enough to escape the hunt of consumerism and honestly save a sum of money. Then the second hurdle is already waiting for you — purchasing power quietly evaporates.

From a macro perspective, moderate inflation is the norm, but for those in the early stages of accumulation, it is the most cruel hidden tax. The $500k you worked hard to save may lose one-third of its purchasing power after three to five years of asset price fluctuations. Core real estate and equity of top companies always rise faster than wages. And financial leverage is naturally biased toward asset owners, excluding ordinary people. By the time you save enough for the down payment on a house from ten years ago, housing prices have already changed beyond recognition.

This catch-up effect traps 90% of people in a Sisyphean dilemma: You desperately push the rock up the hill, and the system only needs to gently turn the monetary valve for the rock to roll back to the starting point.

**The third siege: Complex financial products — precisely harvesting those who "know a little"**

If consumerism harvests the rookies, then the endless stream of "financial innovations" harvests the hardest-working middle class. P2P, non-standard assets, structured derivatives, and even financial plans cloaked in AI and blockchain — the primary goal of these product designs is never to help you make a profit, but to earn your management fees and principal.

Modern finance highly advocates "volatility," because volatility brings transactions, and transactions bring fees. The system constantly creates anxiety, inducing you to operate frequently, chase gains and cut losses, and believe in algorithms that even experts cannot explain. In the end, most people, just as they step onto the starting line of "financial freedom," have already become a line of numbers on the institution's profit statement.

**The way out: Three "counter-intuitive" survival skills**

Seeing these clearly is not to be cynical, but to leave yourself a way out in the game. To complete primitive accumulation, I believe you need at least three abilities:

First, almost obsessive delayed gratification. When the system frantically tempts you to consume, you must guard your principal like a miser. Every penny during the primitive accumulation period is a soldier for your future. Without initial scale, all financial skills are castles in the air.

Second, maintain absolute reverence for "high returns you don't understand." The first beneficiary of all financial innovations is always the designer. The most reliable path for ordinary people is nothing more than "deep cultivation within your field to improve skills + passively holding core assets outside the field for the long term."

Third, establish an "asset mindset" instead of a "liability mindset." Before spending any money, ask yourself: Does this expenditure make me richer in the future, or does it make me have to work even harder to pay it back in the future?

Modern finance, in the final analysis, is a brutal screening of "intelligence and desire." It rewards those who see through the rules and endure loneliness, and punishes those who go with the flow and are swept away by desire.

The process of primitive accumulation is destined to be boring, even painful. In a bustling city, you need to protect your heart like an ascetic monk. Only after completing the initial accumulation can you qualify to deal with this system, or even use it.

Don't exhaust all your energy before reaching the finish line. #比特币、